Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Power of Persistence

I’m sure everyone at one time or another has seen the 1st movie involving archeologist Indiana Jones. I’m sure they have all been amazed at the stunts, music and action in the tale of his search, but there is another strong theme in Raiders that is a very important lesson for people to learn. In fact, the earlier one learns this lesson the more likely they will succeed later in life.
The year was 1981, Personally I was only 5 years old when this came out, but I still remember seeing it in the theatres. At that time I was more concerned about closing my eyes when the skeletons came on screen, but as I grew, the lessons in this blockbuster became much clearer to me. The interesting dynamic in this film regarding the lesson, is that for the first time, we see a theme that is equally adhered to by both the good guy and the bad guy. In this aspect, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most tremendous teachers in our darkened theatre.
Lets look at the pre-theatre analysis. We’ve got a strong title, easily getting the boys excited about going to see it. This is important, we want this movie to appeal in majority to adolescent boys, that is in great part due to the persistence theme, there is nothing more fragile then the teenage boy’s ego, and as many times as it gets assaulted in Jr High and High School, they need to know how to be persistent. Not much on the surface to appeal to the girls, in fact, as I write this it appears we have our first movie that doesn’t have an immediate draw to the finer sex. Just as well, as we all know girls mature quicker than guys, so maybe they don’t need this lesson as much as their male counterparts.

The movie begins, and we are in South America, we follow a shadowy figure who is rugged and good with a whip. Suddenly, the guides are frightened by a statue and run off screaming. First lesson, if you are in the jungle and your guides run off, don’t run with them, continue on your own, what’s the worst that can happen to you? So, they continue on and come to a cave, Indy enters with one other guy, they go to the cave and Indy sees his prize, the treasure he has been looking for, and when he finally grabs it, the entire cave starts to collapse around him. Here we learn that sometimes even when you think you’ve reached your goal, it may not have been all that you thought, something to keep in mind.
We rejoin Indy running for his life and reaching a chasm, with the other man standing on the other side. Here Indy decides to throw his treasure to his “friend”, in exchange for getting across the chasm. Of course, Indy being the trusting soul tosses the treasure, only to be abandoned by his “friend”. Another instance where one must truly know his friends, so that they won’t be abandoned at the first sight of a shiny object, or pretty face. Again, showing his resolve, Indy could have just resigned himself to his fate, treasureless and stuck in a cave, but instead he risks everything and jumps the chasm, in order to continue his existence and reclaim that treasure.
He does reclaim the treasure only to face a giant boulder trying to squash him like a pancake. Again undaunted Indy escapes the boulder, only to run into his arch enemy, Belloq. Belloq too, wants the treasure, but he has an army of natives with spears to back him up, Indy must give up the treasure, and then runs for his life. Note here, that if one is persistent and smart, they can get the treasure with considerable less effort then others. Its that whole brain over brawn thing.

Next time we get to the ark, I’m going to skip a bunch of the movie here, but in summary, Indy is asked to go find the Ark, in another part of town, Belloq has also been asked, or really hired, to go get the Ark as well. Thus our ‘race’ begins. We have 2 men, with different motives, but both with the same goal. This is the point where our lesson truly begins; persistence is a great trait to have, but in its pursuit, you walk a fine line between success and failure.

Where the Miracle of Daniel Larusso Continues...

We reach the night before the karate tournament, and it happens to be Daniel’s birthday. Most would expect a card or other miniscule gift from Mr. Miyagi, but this is our Hero were talking about, so what does he get, a car. Not just any car, but an antique car, probably worth a fortune. Why does he get this, no one knows, but he thanks Mr. Miyagi with the “best friend” line we have already discussed. Hell, Mr. Miyagi would be my best friend too, if he turned me into a karate machine and gave me an antique car, in spite of my annoying and rather stupefying behavior. But this is what we are talking about, what more proof do you need that in spite of your current condition great things can still happen to you.
Back to Ali with an I, she has finally come to her senses and is no longer talking with Daniel, because of his behavior and accusations of cheating following the spaghetti incident. It takes her friends to explain to our simple minded hero how she feels and what she did after Johnny kissed her, for Daniel to see the errors of his ways. As we all know, since this is Daniel, he does not need to make a grand production, or even grovel to get her back. Nope, all he does is say, “Hey I’m a jerk. I’m sorry.” Boom, he’s back in the saddle again. Will miracles never cease? **Note- this scene also contains the most uncomfortable kiss ever filmed. So vulgar in fact, I couldn't get it on YouTube do to the complaints about it being inappropriate content.**
We’ve reached the climax of our movie, and we are now at the tournament.

Remember up until this point, all the fights that Daniel has been in have basically been hand to hand combat with no rules or “points” associated. As luck would have it the tournament has referees and rules. In this format, suddenly Daniel is unbeatable. Of course, this is after he runs out of the ring like a scared cat in the first round. So, Daniel continues winning matches, but manages to still get kicked in the face by one of Johnny’s thugs. But since it was an illegal hit, it doesn’t count as a point so Daniel still advances, divine intervention, I think not. And all of this st to the hippest of songs, "You're the Best"!



Daniel arrives in the semi-finals and is scheduled to face Bobby. Bobby feels he can beat him fair and square, but is influenced to resort to his underhanded methods and kicks his foot into Daniel’s knee. Instead of gloating about the damage he’s done, suddenly Bobby has a heart and apologizes to Daniel as he is whisked away on a stretcher. At this point it appears that we won’t get to see the final showdown between Daniel and Johnny. But this is our hero we’re talking about, the man who doesn’t know how to quit when he is ahead. Sure he can’t walk, but gosh darnit, I have to go get beat senseless by Johnny or my life wouldn’t be complete. So, Miyagi decides that if this idiot wants to be killed, why should he stand in his way. Miyagi does his magic rub down on Daniel’s leg, and sends him out to impending doom. But as with everything involving our hero, things just seem to work out. Johnny and Daniel fight, and in spite of his broken leg, and dirty tactics by Johnny, which would be perfectly legal in this same showdown on the beach, they fight to a 2-2 tie, next point wins. ("Get him a Body Bag!!!") At this point Daniel can barely walk, he’s crying, and is pretty much done for, so what does he do, something else that solidifies his place in the nerd hall of fame. He stands up on one leg, lifts his arms as though he had a cape on, and stares at Johnny. Well, in any other case, the ultra-cool karate expert would simple kick Daniel’s leg out from under him and punch him in the throat, but this is Daniel’s world and the rest of us are just living in it. So naturally Johnny freaks out at this new stance, and allows himself to get kicked in the face, handing the championship to Daniel. Literally, Johnny hands the trophy to Daniel, and tells him, “you’re all right”. Suddenly Daniel has won over his sharpest critic with one swift kick in the face.



In future episodes of the Karate Kid, we see Ali with an I finally come to her senses and dump Daniel for a college jock, only to have Daniel get lucky with a really hot Japanese girl, who then dumps him to go to dance school, finally leaving Daniel with a nice girl reminiscent of the girl he left in New Jersey. We also see Daniel continue to piss off the toughest meanest guys in the city, only to eventually beat them with some unorthodox stance that paralyzes them with fear. In any case, Daniel and his dorky, negative self reigns supreme, while all things good continue to happen to him.
So to all of you who feel down on your luck, feel like only bad things happen to you, have no luck in love, or just are downright depressed with life. Pop in the story of Daniel Larusso, and feel born again. For there is no one on this earth that should not be successful in life than Daniel Larusso, but he is. Therefore, shout this mantra at the top of your lungs, “If it can Happen to Daniel, It can Happen to Me.”

Karate Kid Continued

Won't waste time explaining the reason for the delay between posts. Lets just pick up where we left off, shall we. Daniel Larusso, bumbling fool extraordinaire was trying to teach himself karate, annoy the town bully and rebuff advances from ms. popularity...

But this is the Karate Kid we are talking about. Daniel goes to school, gets picked-on, teased, and laughed at, but still manages to win the heart of Ms. Popularity, Ali with an I. He even gets a date with her, despite getting kicked off the soccer team, thanks to one of Johnny’s thugs, aptly named Bobby. Life goes on with Daniel, and he learns more about Mr. Miyagi, while continuing to “teach” himself Karate out of a book. In the midst of this, Daniel gets run off the road by Johnny and his thugs, wrecks his bike, and finds out his mom lost her job. This causes many scenes of our hero whining, complaining, avoiding the one girl that sees beyond all his numerous faults and just generally being negative and annoying. Daniel behaves in a manner that would suggest he is trying to avoid good things happening to him. But then Mr.Miyagi fixes his bike and teaches him how to prune Bonsai Trees.

Daniel now armed with his newfound manly skill of pruning baby trees, suddenly has enough self-esteem to go to the school dance. Not only that, he has enough moxy, to play a prank on Johnny. Needless to say, Johnny and the boys don’t take too kindly to the prank, run him down and beat him like a drum. But keeping with our theme here, rather than ending up disabled and embarrassed to the point where he can’t show his face in public, Mr. Miyagi shows up, defeats the gang, and takes care of our hero’s injuries.

As if this movie really is a sick experiment in seeing if Daniel’s good fortune will hold. Mr. Miyagi takes Daniel to the Nazi-dojo where Johnny and the boys learn their skills. Not only does Miyagi throw down the gauntlet for Daniel, he has the audacity to complain that it’s not fair that Daniel keeps getting beat up. What is even more amazing is that heartless-Nazi sensei, agrees to the terms. Life is pretty amazing, I guess that good things really do happen to everyone. Daniel, continuing to not see the good fortune beset upon him, continues to complain and whine, but Mr. Miyagi still offers to train him. Now our hero is in training, but not by anyone, by the greatest Karate mind since Bruce Lee. If life was really fair, Daniel would live out the rest of his existence as a nerd who gets beat up every other week. But no, in Daniel’s case we see that even the most unfortunate souls have greatness thrust upon them. Of course, Miyagi finally gives a little payback to Daniel, by making him do a ton of housework and upkeep. However, much to our amazement Daniel slowly becomes a Karate guru.
Meanwhile, Daniel still tries everything in his power to screw up his relationship with Ali with an I. He has his mom drive them to their date, including picking her up at her mansion in their broken down, rusty station wagon. Complete with Daniel being forced to push the car to get it started while Ali with an I’s parents stand by watching. In spite of that, and an uncomfortable moment where Daniel’s mom shows up in front of all of Ali with an I’s friends, she is still really into Daniel. Keeping with his m.o. of trying to screw up a good thing, Daniel now makes the ultimate faux pas. First, he dresses in all white, I’m talking white shirt, white pants, white socks. We can already see that he is dressed to impress so he goes to the fancy country club to meet Ali with an I. He grows impatient and enters the kitchen area of the restaurant to see if he can see her. He witnesses Johnny dancing with her. Well, we all know what happens next, Johnny notices Daniel and takes it upon himself to kiss Ali with an I. Daniel gets mad, although we don’t know why, even if she was cheating on him, why should he care? Anyway, Daniel runs into a waiter and creates a beautiful collage of spaghetti and meatballs all over his white canvas outfit. He then runs out of the country club like a scared little kitten, not noticing that in spite of this huge embarrassing act, Ali with an I, slaps Johnny further showing her desire to be with ultra-geek, I mean ultra-chic Daniel.

Join us next time for the climax---er--conclusion of the excitement that is Daniel LArusso's life and it just may give you a better outlook on your own life!

The Karate Kid (I, II, III): There's hope for all of us Part I

The year was 1984. It was the summer and time for another group of would-be blockbusters to be released. Little did everyone know; an epic trilogy would begin. With all the fanfare surrounding trilogies today, I am speaking of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and The Matrix; it is amazing that this one has been lost in the annals of great trilogies of the 20th century. At this point some of you may say I have lost my mind, but truly, the Karate Kid movies have a very simple theme, “Hope Springs Eternal”, and for this reason, these films should be watched and absorbed by anyone who has ever had a bad day, felt depressed, or had the feeling that their life will never get better.

For the purposes of our discussion we will focus mostly on the events in The Karate Kid, however, we will be touching on the significant portions of the 2 sequels as well. But to the 1st Karate Kid, you knew you were in for something special when you saw the preview in the theatres. Who wouldn’t be intrigued, when a young Ralph Macchio tilts his head slightly, blinks his eyes, and looks longingly in Mr. Miyagi’s eyes and says, “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had”. This was all it took to get the teenage masses to the theatres and rental counters.

Let’s look at our pre-viewing analysis of this one. You have “Karate” in the title, immediately appealing to the adolescent male, because, what teenager doesn’t want to watch a movie involving Karate. Then you couple that with the star, Ralph Macchio, his name just drips with macho-ism, even if it is just his name. You also must realize at this point in time, Ralph was a big heartthrob to the adolescent girl, not to mention the heartwarming friend comment in the preview. Again, masterful marketing to both male and female audiences, appealing to both equally.

So, now we start on our ride, literally, the movie begins with our hero leaving the rough and tumble streets of Jersey, to a “better life” in that suburb-meeca, Reseda, California. Already we see that this guy has luck on his side. Here you have a single mom from New Jersey with a teenage son, being moved across the country to Sunny California, for what is the equivalent of a telemarketer job. How is that for amazing! Not that our hero notices it, oh no, he longs for the dreary days of New Jersey. So, out of frustration he kicks in the apartment complex gate, only to knock down a menacing looking teenager from the east side of L.A. You say to yourself, he’s a dead man, but no the teenager merely dusts himself off and is actually interested in the techniques he used to kick the door down, as if he has never seen anyone actually kick a door down before. Let’s stop for a minute, if you are like me, you are wondering why, A) our hero isn’t dead at this point or B) why the teenager from the East Side hasn’t called his sidekicks to threaten his life. But that goes to show that even on your worst days good things still happen.

I forgot to mention something else that’s working against our hero, his name is Daniel, not the best name when you are trying to come off as a Karate tough guy. None the less, the guy Daniel almost maimed with his foot, not only helps him move in, but invites him to a beach party the next day to meet a lot of “hot” girls. Here is proof that even you can be Big Man/Woman on Campus. Up to this point in the movie, there is nothing remotely appealing about Daniel, all he does is whine and complain, but lo and behold here he is going to a beach party with a bunch of “hot” girls. Finally, Daniel shows his first redeeming quality and decides to go to the party. I almost forgot, in the middle of this scenario he goes and meets Mr. Miyagi for the first time, and he is scared of him. So much for the New Jersey tough guy image.

Now we are at the beach, the day goes along and they are playing that game of games, Soccer. We find out that Daniel is quite the soccer aficionado, not only that, but his soccer prowess has drawn the interest of a certain girl. Not just any girl, but the most popular and attractive girl in school. Can I get an Amen! If Mr. Personality, Daniel Larusso, can cause the best looking girl in school to swoon with his soccer skills, then there is hope for everyone! Night falls at the beach, the ghetto blaster plays sweet rock n roll music, and Daniel and “the girl” begin flirting over a soccer ball. I pause here for the heavy romantic sigh I know everyone is making. Little does our hero know, that this girl recently broke up with the most popular boy in school, who also happens to be a karate expert, and leads a gang of motorcycle riding, karate menaces. I think we all know what happens next, Johnny, the ex-boyfriend arrives at the beach and confronts the girl, Daniel, not knowing when he is ahead, tries to step in as a mediator. Note to everyone reading, when good things happen to you, accept them, don’t go looking for a way to screw them up. I think we all know what happens next, Johnny gets mad and beats the cookies out of Daniel. But this not all bad, sure the teenager from the apartment complex thinks he’s a geek now, and he’s made enemies of the toughest, popular dudes in school, but strangely, his ability to be beaten to a pulp endears him to the most popular girl in school. I am not suggesting that to get a girl one needs to go and get beaten senseless, only proving that even in your darkest hour the strangest things can happen. Of course, Daniel ignoring my warning above, decides to rebuff her advances, normally a fatal move.

Tomorrow: Daniel continues his triumphant climb up the ladder of success!

**Trivia Note for my Comic Book Saavy Readers: The Karate Kid was the name of a character in DC Comic's "Legion Of Superheroes" who was a member of the Legion. DC Comics, which owned the name, gave special permission for the title to be used. There's a thank you to DC Comics for allowing the use of the name at the end of the credits

VCR's and the 1980's

Growing up in the 1980’s, I was a witness to the growth of the Video Cassette Recorder as a common household appliance. I can still remember the story of my Dad purchasing one for one thousand dollars and having my mother wondering if my dad had lost his mind. Granted at the time I was only 6 years old and had no idea how this box would influence my life and the lives of every young child from then on. But it is this simple piece of technology that has taught me as much, if not more, then all the classes in all the schools I have attended in the last 20 years.
Long before my dad bought our first VCR and even before you could go to your local cinema to watch a movie on the big screen, the stories we call “movies” now, were contained in a more primitive form, books. Vocabularies increased, eyesight would worsen, and controversies would erupt over the content within the books! Now, it seems vocabularies are worse, eyesight is still getting worse (for different reasons), and now the controversies exist over content in movies.
Sure, movies have existed for years, but it wasn’t until the VCR came along that such a huge number of children have had access to these movies. As a result, the movie has become a great source of knowledge and influence on the kids of today. It is a shame that when the influence of movies are discussed, the focus tends to be on sex, violence, and bad language. While these exist as a part of movies, it is a small portion of the films as a whole. It is this grandiose vision of films that I will discuss here. For within many of these films there are many lessons to be learned and positive influences to absorb.
In any case, movies are a huge part of young people’s lives. At the theatre, on cable, and most definitely at the video store. I ask you to pop some popcorn, grab your favorite drink, unwrap some candy, sit back and enjoy these lessons from a darkened theatre.